The present disclosure is related generally to the field of dental treatment. More particularly, the present disclosure is related to attachment of a dental wire within a patient's mouth.
Various dental procedures move or adjust the position of teeth within a patient's mouth. When teeth have been moved, for example, to correct a dental malocclusion, once the movement and/or positioning of the one or more teeth is finished, if preventive measures are not taken, the teeth can also move to reproduce the original condition, to some intermediate position between the initial position and the final position attained after the procedures, or to a position that is not part of the treatment.
In such instances, a retainer can be used to prevent the adverse movement of the one or more teeth. The goal of the retainer is to stabilize the new configuration of the teeth so that the teeth do not move to one of the above incorrect positions.
Retention is useful because the bone around the teeth have to rebuild around the new position of the teeth in order to stabilize the teeth. Retention can be accomplished by use of a retainer that holds the teeth in position for a duration of time to allow for the periodontal ligaments and bone to reform around the new positions of the teeth.
In some instances, the periodontal ligaments and bone can, for example, need a number of years for stabilization. In order to provide such long term retention, a fixed retainer is often utilized where two ends of a metallic wire are attached between two teeth and the wire acts to keep the two teeth positioned with respect to each other. Additionally, the wire also can keep teeth in position that are positioned between two teeth at which the two ends of the wire are attached.
The attachment is often accomplished through the mounting of a band around each tooth and the ends of a wire attached to the bands or through the bonding of the ends of the wire to the teeth. These types of attachment methods are performed by the treatment professional and the retainers are shaped by the treatment professional just prior to attachment to the patient's teeth.
Accordingly, in some instances this can lead to imprecise positioning, poor adjustment prior to attachment, and other such problems. These processes can be difficult to perform and can also require special knowledge by the treatment professional to perform and/or specialized materials to implement.